Why Google Apps Is An Excellent Collaboration Tool for Local Governments
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Cloud computing is beginning to catch fire in local governments due to the potential benefits that can be realized — everything from the possibilities of lowering IT-associated costs, to increasing flexibility and simplifying IT management. One other benefit that can be realized is the ease of collaboration which makes Google Apps for Government an excellent tool for local governments.
Why you might ask? There are actually 8 reasons. You ready to take a look
- Versatile - According to Wikipedia, ” Google Apps is a service from Google providing independently customizable versions of several Google products under a custom domain name. It features several Web applications with similar functionality.”
- Secure – Google data centers have been engineered by top-notch security experts & FISMA certified. Added in at no extra cost is best-in-class disaster recovery
- Gmail – What could be easier for your agency than having 25GB storage for your Gmail, less spam, and 99.9% uptime. Email security is powered by Postini. In addition, Gmail has been designed to be a powerhouse resource for convenience and user-friendliness allowing you to work from wherever you are, work faster, and use text, voice and video chat to connect with those people you need to connect with.
- Google Calendar - Your calendar is equipped to handle agenda management, scheduling, shared online calendars and mobile calendar syncing capabilities.
- Google Docs – Do you need to work on a document or spreadsheet in partnership with someone in your agency? No problem. Work in real time without having to deal with attachments.
- Google Sites - Would you like to have an intranet or team-managed site for your local government agency? Google Sites is secure AND it allows you to set up sites easily without having to deal with special coding.
- Video – Using Google Apps Video gives you the freedom and ease of use to share your videos — securely. Provide support to agency training programs or use videos to add a personal touch to staff communications.
- Open Records Compliance – In Tennessee (where we are) all levels of government are required to retain certain electronic communications as part of the Tennessee Open Records Act. If your local government is archiving e-mails, it should be, and Google Apps has easy and affordable options that comply with the Open Records Act.
Google Apps for Government provides reliability in cloud-based apps — AND it is certified by the U.S. government. Want to customize by adding more apps? Just check out the Google Apps Marketplace.
Google Apps for Government has every app to make your agency run like a lean, mean machine — cost effectively. Need further proof as to why Google Apps is an excellent collaboration tool for local governments? Check out Google Apps for Government and see the case studies, FAQ, the section on what voters have to say and more for yourself.
Twelve Oaks Group specializes in developing easy to manage online resources for Local Government and has multiple web services that may be of interest to you — or if you think of any questions about Google Apps for Government that you don’t have answers for, give us a call at (731) 337-4330. We’ll be glad to help you out.
Twelve Oaks Group
Tennessee-based Twelve Oak Group is unique in its approach to its customers. Each team member is committed to helping grow small business, making local government more accessible, and enhancing communities with their web design and consulting services expertise. We will not deviate from this approach!
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